Karzai Pouts After White House Snub

This month, President Obama
canceled a White House meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Insulted and
"incensed," Karzai turned around and invited Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give a harrowing anti-American speech
in Afghanistan. What does this say about Karzai and his relationship
with the Obama administration?

Karzai Wants More Leverage Spencer Ackerman at The
Washington Independent writes: "All of Karzai’s criticisms run in one
direction: to give himself the maximum freedom of political maneuver,
while soon-to-be 140,000 foreign troops and billions of dollars in
foreign aid essentially backstop his government. It’s his right as a
politician, but to some degree, the volume of Karzai’s complaints about
being personally slighted serve as a barometric indicator that the U.S.,
the U.N. and NATO are broadening their commitment in Afghanistan to be
about something more sustainable than a relationship between leaders."

Maybe Too Hard on Him? Gregg Carlstrom at The Majlis explains why:
"I'm not sure why he's getting dinged for meeting with Ahmadinejad: Iran
is a neighbor, a country with a significant (and rapidly evolving) role
in Afghanistan; the two countries have a bilateral relationship. Karzai
simply met with his Iranian counterpart, a fairly uneventful
geopolitical event. What should Karzai do? Ignore Iran?"

Obama Right to Get Tough The New York Times editorial board comes out hard against Karzai: "The United States and others rightly cried foul -- the administration
even canceled Mr. Karzai's planned White House visit -- after the
Afghan president issued a decree that would allow him to appoint all of
the members of the election watchdog commission that exposed the fraud
in last year's election...Mr. Karzai's failure to devote maximum effort to fix his government is
self-destructive. So is his recent cozying up to Iran's repressive
government -- a clear effort to spite his American critics. We hope Mr.
Obama told Mr. Karzai all of that in no uncertain terms."

This
Is a Delicate Dance, writes Gerald Seib at The Wall Street
Journal: "American officials play down the significance of Mr. Karzai's
symbolic embrace of Iran's leader, describing it as the sort of thing he
has to do to cope with a powerful neighbor that isn't going away.
Still, the byplay illustrates why Iran's nuclear program isn't the only
problem American leaders have to worry about. The broader concern is
Iran's interest in becoming a more powerful regional player. Indeed,
Iran's nuclear program is worrisome in part because a nuclear-armed Iran
would be even better able to intimidate its neighbors."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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